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        <h1>
            kSynth.Drone Help</h1>
        <p>
            <a href="kSynth.Drone.htm">Go back to kSynth.Drone</a></p>
        <p>
            Thanks for taking the time to better understand how to use <em>kSynth.Drone</em>.
            kSynth.Drone is a digital audio synthesizer gadget developed in the C# programming
            language for the Silverlight web browser plugin.
        </p>
        <p>
            kSynth.Drone is a <strong>gadget</strong> and is <em>not</em> meant to be a tool
            used to make music. It's just a fun little tool that you can make some interesting
            sounds with. If you have a good set of speakers that can put out some decent bass
            then this app may be particularly fun.</p>
        <p>
            This app may be most appealing to synth geeks, electrical engineers, and Silverlight
            developers. If you don't fall into any of those categories I still think you'll
            have fun.</p>
        <h2>
            Optional Desktop Installation</h2>
        <p>
            You can install and run this app on your desktop by right-clicking anywhere in the
            app and choosing to perform the installation:</p>
        <p class="img">
            <img src="images/install.png" alt="install" /></p>
        <h2>
            App Basics</h2>
        <p>
            I don't want to spend too much time on this because I hope you are a curious enough
            user that you can figure these things out. Plus the app already provides some brief
            instructions.</p>
        <ol>
            <li>Click on the canvas to add a channel.</li>
            <li>Click on an object after it has been added and drag it around to move it.</li>
            <li>Click and drag on an empty part of the canvas to scroll around.</li>
            <li>Hover over the yellow oscillator control and click Delete to delete a channel.</li>
        </ol>
        <p>
            Theoretically, you can add as many channels as you want. I was able to add 30 channels
            to the canvas until my computer started to hate me.</p>
        <p>
            The only tricky part is that when you add a channel for the first time you'll see
            this message about the volume:</p>
        <p class="img">
            <img src="images/volummsg.png" alt="Volume message" /></p>
        <p>
            Just follow the instructions in the message and increase the volume to hear some
            sound. The reason the volume is not turned up by default is because you will run
            in to some really nasty distortion if you have other channels producing sound too.
            It's just safer to add a channel with no volume. This little pop-up message is a
            (hopefully) not-too-intrusive reminder about that.</p>
        <h2>
            Sound Wave and Channel Basics</h2>
        <p>
            At a channel's most fundamental level, you can change the underlying sound wave's
            frequency (pitch) and wave form (sine, saw, square, or triangle). Use the two controls
            located inside the Oscillator circle to do this:</p>
        <p class="img">
            <img src="images/OscControl.png" alt="Oscillator Control" /></p>
        <p>
            Next, you can pan a channel to the right or left using the Pan control. Easy enough.
            You've already been introduced to the Volume control - and that's about as basic
            as it gets for a single channel.</p>
        <p>
            The next step though is to add a second channel (or more) onto the canvas:</p>
        <p class="img">
            <img src="images/multichannel.png" alt="Multiple channels" width="600" /></p>
        <p>
            Try panning one channel hard right and a 2nd channel hard left and setting their
            freqencies off by 1 Hz to produce a stereo, wobbly effect.</p>
        <h2>
            Frequency and Amplitude Modulation</h2>
        <p>
            You've probably noticed by now that when you hover over the oscillator control that
            a menu pops up:</p>
        <p class="img">
            <img src="images/oscmenu.png" alt="Oscillator menu" /></p>
        <p>
            This menu has the following options:</p>
        <ul>
            <li>Hz Mod - frequency modulation</li>
            <li>Amp Mod - amplitude modulation</li>
            <li>Env - dynamic envelope</li>
            <li>Delete - kapow!</li>
        </ul>
        <p>
            First let's look at Frequency Modulation. Click the "Hz Mod" button and you'll see
            another control pop out:</p>
        <p class="img">
            <img src="images/freqmodcontrol.png" alt="Freq Mod Control" /></p>
        <p>
            Before I forget, you can collapse the Frequency Modulation control by clicking the
            "Hz Mod" button again.</p>
        <p>
            A frequency modulator moves the oscillator's pitch up and down. The "Hz" or "frequency"
            parameter controls how fast the modulation occurs. The "Amp" or "amplitude" parameter
            controls how severe the change in pitch is. A low frequency/high amplitude modulation
            will result in a siren effect. Higher frequency modulations change the sound so
            significantly that the modulated sound barely resembles the original.</p>
        <p>
            You can also change the wave form of the frequency modulator. A Sine wave form will
            produce a smooth up-and-down change of the pitch. A Saw wave form modulation will
            move the sound from a low pitch to a high pitch, then jump back down (discretely)
            to the low starting point. A Square wave produces discrete maximum low and high
            sounds.</p>
        <p>
            Try a modulation frequency value of 1.0 Hz and an amplitude of 10,000,000 to produce
            a severe, siren-like frequency modulation.</p>
        <p>
            Next, there's Amplitude Modulation. Click the "Amp Mod" button on the oscillator
            and you'll see another new control:</p>
        <p class="img">
            <img src="images/ampmodcontrol.png" alt="Amp Mod Control" /></p>
        <p>
            Again, you can click on the "Amp Mod" button again to collapse the Amplitude Modulator
            control.</p>
        <p>
            The Amplitude Modulator fades the volume of the oscillator in and out. The "Hz"
            or frequency parameter of the Amplitude Modulator changes the speed of the modulation.</p>
        <h2>
            Envelopes</h2>
        <p>
            Before I explain envelopes, you need to know that envelopes probably won't have
            an audible effect unless you have the Pulse feature enabled:</p>
        <p class="img">
            <img src="images/pulse.png" alt="Pulse" /></p>
        <p>
            You can use the Pulse BMP (beats per minute) slider to change the pulse speed.</p>
        <p>
            Envelopes are also known as "Dynamic Envelopes" or "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADSR_envelope"
                target="_blank">ADSR Envelopes</a>". kSynth.Drone uses three of the four parameters
            of an ADSR envelope:</p>
        <ul>
            <li>Attack (A): how fast a sound or modulation fades in.</li>
            <li>Sustain (S): how long a sound or modulation maintains its peak value.</li>
            <li>Release (R): how fast a sound or modulation fades out.</li>
        </ul>
        <p>
            kSynth.Drone uses this type of envelope in three places:</p>
        <ul>
            <li>Oscillator envelope: affects the volume of a single note or pulse. This will allow
                you to create short, staccato sounds or broader, smoother sounds.</li>
            <li>Frequency Modulator envelope: shapes the intensity of the frequency modulator. This
                lets you control the intensity of the frequency modulation over time.</li>
            <li>Amplitude Modulator envelope: shapes the intensity of the amplitude modulator. Like
                the Frequency Modulator envelope, it controls how intense the amplitude modulation
                is over time.</li>
        </ul>
        <p>
            You can open up the envelope controls for an oscillator, frequency modulator, or
            amplitude modulator by clicking their "Env" menu buttons:</p>
        <p class="img">
            <img src="images/oscenv.png" alt="Oscillator envelope" /><br />
            Oscillator Envelope</p>
        <p class="img">
            <img src="images/freqmodenv.png" alt="Frequency Modulator envelope" /><br />
            Frequency Modulator Envelope</p>
        <p class="img">
            <img src="images/ampmodenv.png" alt="Amplitude Modulator envelope" /><br />
            Amplitude Modulator Envelope</p>
        <p>
            These controls can all be collapsed by clicking the "Env" menu button again on their
            respective parent controls.</p>
        <p>
            All of these envelopes are controlled in the same way. The numeric value of the
            A, S, and R parameters corresponds to the number of digital sample points that will
            be passed over that segment of the envelope. For example, an Attack (A) value of
            "8000" on an oscillator envelope means that a sound will fade in to 100% volume
            over the course of 8000 digital samples.
        </p>
        <h2>
            Presets, and an Example</h2>
        <p>
            You can use the presets selection box to quickly jump in to a pre-defined set of
            channels. These presets are a great starting point if starting from scratch just
            isn't your thing. Admittedly, there aren't a lot of presets available but they should
            still allow you understand the settings more quickly than if they weren't there
            at all.</p>
        <h3>
            Bass Drone Example</h3>
        <p>
            If you have a sub-woofer in your house, hook it up and try this one out.</p>
        <ul>
            <li>Pulse: off</li>
            <li>Channel 1
                <ul>
                    <li>Oscillator: Sine @ 100 hz</li>
                    <li>Pan hard left</li>
                    <li>Almost full volume</li>
                    <li>Frequency modulate at 13 Hz, 400,000 amplitude, square wave</li>
                </ul>
            </li>
            <li>Channel 2
                <ul>
                    <li>Oscillator: Sine @ 99 hz</li>
                    <li>Pan hard right</li>
                    <li>Almost full volume</li>
                    <li>Frequency modulate at 14 Hz, 500,000 amplitude, square wave</li>
                </ul>
            </li>
            <li>Channel 3
                <ul>
                    <li>Oscillator: Sine @ 50 hz</li>
                    <li>Almost full volume</li>
                    <li>Frequency modulate at 7 Hz, 2,000,000 amplitude, sine wave</li>
                    <li>Amplitude modulate at 0.1 Hz</li>
                </ul>
            </li>
            <li>Channel 4
                <ul>
                    <li>Oscillator: Square @ 100 hz</li>
                    <li>Pan hard left</li>
                    <li>Low volume</li>
                    <li>Amplitude modulate at 37 Hz</li>
                </ul>
            </li>
            <li>Channel 5
                <ul>
                    <li>Oscillator: Square @ 101 hz</li>
                    <li>Pan hard right</li>
                    <li>Low volume</li>
                    <li>Amplitude modulate at 36 Hz</li>
                </ul>
            </li>
        </ul>
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